My Selection of Hardware-based VPN Routers

On my last article, I shared with you few criteria I’d use for choosing hardware-based VPN routers. If you look at it, my list of criteria is not very long, that is because IMHO there’s not much difference between the implementation of these routers if we just want to stay on the layman’s level. But if you want to get into more technical details, then I could have addressed it differently.

Anyway, I did a tour on the offerings for the hardware-based routers, and although I didn’t actually tested them, here are my list of promising routers that are worth considering if you want to buy one.

Cisco/LinkSys VPN Routers

By acquiring LinkSys, Cisco has a very wide variety of routers for the SOHO segment. Si I wanted to check one that can act as a WiFi access point, while being able to connect via ADSL. I then ended up with this model:

Cisco-Linksys WRVS4400N Wireless-N Gigabit Security Router – VPN v2.0 : this can be a too-powerful router for a SOHO but I kind of liked it. Not only does it provide Wireless N feature, but it also comes with a gigabit Ethernet. This is mainly geared toward small businesses if they want to allow their remote employees to connect via an IPSec tunnel,

Wireless-n Vpn Firewall This router also provides Wireless N support. But what I liked most with it is that it allows you to setup a Wireless Guest access so that you don’t have to share your Wireless credentials to people visiting your home office. Moreover, it supports PPTP and IPSec.

Netgear VPN Routers

NetGear WNR3500L Rangemax Wireless-N Gigabit Router with DD-WRT VPN firmware This is a great router and it comes with DD-WRT support. Moreover, it provides Wireless N feature. On the VPN side, it implements OpenVPN and PPTN which are the usual VPN protocols. DD-WRT implementation is definitely a plus users since my co-bloggers have already shown how to implement DD-WRT with some VPN providers.

DLink VPN Routers

D-Link Dir-330 Wireless G Vpn Router IEEE 802.11b/G 2.40 Ghz 6.75 Mbps Transmission Speed While it only supports Wireless G (not wireless N), this router has a great combination of features that will surely please demanding VPN users. Moreover, it can directly be connected to a cable or DSL modem making it a perfect choice for being your internet/VPN gateway. On the VPN side, it supports IPSec, PPTP and L2TP. A great list of features for a nice price.

Well, as usual when it comes to choosing a device, marketing has it that you’ve got a lot of options. And it becomes a bit hard to get almost all of the features you want into only one device. Anyway, I’ve made some selections here based on varying criteria, and more because those are brands who are known to be serious enough in the router industry.

I’m sure I’ve missed some brands or models in this list, but why don’t you add your own list in the comment section?